The Book Grove Amazon Seller Practicing Deceit Internet

After a dvd purchase from The Book Grove last December 2011, where I was lied to and stolen from, I have been following their Horrible reviews on Amazon. Randal, the owner, NEVER takes responsibility, only gives an excuse. Simply, a liar. Let me explain what happened to me....

I bought a DVD The Book Grove had for sale. They had a new one and a used one....almost the same price. I bought the new and told them to make sure I got the new and not the used(only pennies different in cost). When my DVD arrived, it was from a seller on Ebay with an Ebay invoice and it was used and only had 1 of the 2 discs it was supposed to have. Even had a used sticker on it that was $6 cheaper than the Book Grove's price.
What this means is that The Book Grove shops around online and buys cheaper stuff and lists them as new instead of used and make money from it with no work. When I complained to them I was told to use my money to ship back. I think that is pathetic since they lied. Amazon got me a 100% refund because they lied.

NEVER PURCHASE FROM THE BOOK GROVE.

Just look at their reviews on Amazon. Any seller below 97% is scary. The highest they have ever been is 94% and the past 12 months a 92%.
Things their reviews show from customers.....

1. They sale used items in terrible shape and list them as new. The reason, they sometimes buy them from online shops, ebay, and they don't actually see them. Lie!

2. They sometimes tell buyers they had to cancel the transactions because they say the product was damaged in stock. They cancel.....a few days later it's back on at a higher price.

3. ITEMS TAKE FOREVER TO ARRIVE!! Just look at their reviews on Amazon. It happens a lot when customers tell them, "it's been too long, where's my product"? They ALWAYS either say, "It was lost in the mail" or "package was returned to us empty".

To sum it up, the best I can tell you is go back and spend 10 minutes and look at their reviews on Amazon. You will see that EVERYTHING I am saying here is true.  It is so much better to spend a few more bucks and be safe. You cannot trust their listings. If it's listed as new, chances are it's not. And when reviewers complain about this The Book Grove says, "We should have inspected the item better"! However, like what they did to me, they didn't even have it in stock. They bought it from a guy on Ebay who listed it as used. But they sold it as new.

I'd like to apologize for the negative experience John had with our company. I realize how incredibly frustrating is when you order something online and don't get the product you wanted and on top of that you have to deal with returning it. This is rare, but when it inevitably happens you want it be as stress free as possible. We should have done better.

I truly regret that we didn't provide a better return experience for John, however I have to be clear that we do not practice the malicious policies stated in this report. If a customer receives a product that is damaged or different in any way from what was ordered, they will receive a full refund and reimbursement for return shipping charges. There is no set time limit to this return policy, though in general most returns happen well within 30 days. It's that simple.

If a customer receives the exact and undamaged product they ordered but still wishes to return it, we accept the return without question but reserve the right to charge up to a 20 percent restocking fee. Typically this happens when, for example, a new and wrapped DVD or CD is sent out and the customer returns it to us opened. I believe that is a fair and honest policy, and those are Amazon's guidelines:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161246

Again, I am sorry this didn't go smoother. Our customer service representative should have been kinder, I admit, and I apologize for the unnecessary stress over a simple thing like this, but we are not in the business of defrauding our customers. We've been in business for almost 10 year and have served 1,000,000 people and always strive to deliver exactly what the customer wants in at least or better than expected condition.

John, if there is anything we can do at this point to redeem your experience, please let me know. As for any other customers, if there is ever a problem with your order, please don't hesitate to email us to find a resolution. If you're still unsatisfied with our customer service, please ask to speak to me--Randal.

Sincerely,
The Book Grove LLC

One should be cautious of the shady practices of The Book Grove. The Book Grove is an online Amazon bookseller that purposefully sends out the wrong books and posts fraudulent products. That is, they lie about the product. Further, they have a complicated and time consuming return policy, which makes it difficult to obtain a refund, or exchange the wrong product for the right product.

There have been reports (simply read the negative feedback on their Amazon seller account: http://www.amazon.com/shops/thebookgrove) of total theft, where the seller has refused to return the customers money.

Even more, The Book Grove charges a 20% fee as well as a 2.00 dollar re-stocking fee for returns. This means, if a customer needs to return an item, she will lose money in the process.

Something else which is also quite disturbing, if The Book Grove makes a mistake they penalize the customer for their mistake. That is, they treat the order as if the customer simply wanted a regular return. This means that the customer only has 7 days from the time of the dispute to collect his or her money. Might seem like allot, but its not. The Book Grove does this on purpose because they know that customer's will not be able to return the books on time, thereby forfeiting their money. So, even if the customers reason for returning a book was that The Book Grove made a mistake and sent the wrong book, The Book Grove will still hold the customer accountable to their 7 day policy. This is deceptive, however they still plead that they are doing nothing wrong, but by maintaining such a strict policy, they are able to avoid the majority of returns. And this is a conscious effort on their part. It's kind of like using the rules to break the rules.    

Finally, they tell customers to return items first class, to pay out of their own pockets for the shipping, they then tell the buyer to email the total cost and they will send a check. But there is no process of verification, no higher accountability. Thus, if The Book Grove decides to dispute the total cost of shipping the customer is left holding the bill, with no help from Amazon, The Book Grove simply gets away with it.

Perhaps also of notable relevance, is that they often ship products without invoices because it makes it harder to return the products. [This has at least been the present reviewers experience, I am sure there are cases where they send out invoices.] 

Conclusion: They have poor customer service, very poor, and shoddy business practices. They lie about their products and make returns so difficult that most people don't even bother. They are sly crooks and buyers are cautioned to beware. If possible, purchase your book from another seller, after all, why take the chance? Dealing with The Book Grove can make for a very stressful experience.